There isn't a moral dilemma as you have a cabin manager who relays the request to the command center which then gives the pilots new orders.
Well, but this would again mean that there actually IS a link (although indirect) to the passenger compartment. Hijackers could just talk to the command center and therefore indirectly to the pilots... I don't see much of an improvement here - at least not when it comes to hijacking in the sense of kidnapping passengers and taking them hostage.
I therefore would argue that there is a moral aspect because at some point someone has to take responsibility - and it doesn't matter if it's the pilot or the guy in the command center.
The model you're proposing does only work if there is no way of communication between the passenger compartment and the "outside" world... and this kind of model seems a bit too artificial to me.
I'm am not sure I agree with this. Maybe hijacking a bus might work that way, but hijacking a decent size plane takes planning and the hijackers will have a clear plan most of the time, i.e. in africa they normally get the pilot to fly them to a safe country, or in the middle east they might plan to land the plane at a friendly airbase and take the passengers hostage. If they know this cannot happen they will plan something else (i.e. hijacking a smaller plane or perhaps a bus - hopefully not driven by Sandra Bullock).
When I was taking about emotions about this context I didn't mean to imply that plane hijacking is a spontanous act. Let me give you an example: The chances that you get away with a capital crime like murder, kidnapping, hijacking, etc. are relatively low. Most western governments will not negotiate with terrorists, especially not if their demands are nonmonetary (e.g. release of prisoners, etc.). And although everyone knows that, there still is murder, there still is kidnapping, hijacking, and terrorism. Criminals and terrorists do just not take into account that their plan could fail. Take capital punishment for example. Why would anyone ever commit a murder in a state where there capital punishment? But if you look at these states you'll see that there still is muder... all because emotions overrule reason.
If you look at the world today then you have to acknowledge that there are very few safe havens left for hijackers. Almost no country in the world can afford to engage into a conflict with the US or Europe over a few kidnapped tourists. I know it still happens, but such kidnappings are of a rather harmless nature since it's mostly about money - in most cases the hostages go free after several painful weeks or months.
That might be the case in an african airport but somehow I can't imagine that happening at JFK or heathrow where they would have an elite military force ready to take out the hijackers.
(this might be wishful thinking on my behalf)
I guess you're right there. Since the late 70's most countries in Europe have such special forces. But these are really the last option - if all else fails it's their turn. I would think that most governments will go the way of de-escalation first.
Eitherway the situation is a thousand times better than it currently is, where ANYBODY can easily gain access to the pilots, kill them, and then fly the plan straight into a building or the ground.
Now, we're talking about terrorism - I think that's a somewhat different situation. There are no demands involved. Terrorists just use an airplane as a weapon. I think that the whole discussion about using planes as weapons is totally exaggerated. The media really presents this as some new way of terrorism and politics give in to that crap.
You cannot fight terrorism by just improving the safety measures on one very specific field. Because then terrorists will just go over to another tactic. Instead on flying planes into towers they'll go back to bombing trains or whatever. Acts of terrorism have to be stopped when they are still in the phase of planning - that is the duty of secret agencies... unfortunately for the US almost all western agencies (not only the American ones) made a pretty shabby job when it comes to 9/11.